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RamboTheVideoGame
Rambo: The Video Game
Publication information
Developer(s)

Teyon

Publisher(s)

Reef Entertainment

Release date

February 21, 2014

Genre

Rail Shooter

Modes

Single-Player, Mutltiplayer

Platform(s)

Xbox 360, Playstation 3, PC

Chronology


Rambo: The Video Game is a rail shooter video game developed by Teyon and published by Reef Entertainment. It was released on February 21st, 2014.

Story[]

The majority of the game's story is told through Flashbacks, as a soldier, gives a Eulogy for deceased John Rambo at a military funeral. He begins by talking about Rambo's escape from a prison camp in Vietnam with his fiend and team mate Delmar Barry. They fight their way through Viet Cong soldiers and make it to freedom. Delmar returns home, while Rambo is redeployed, at his own request.

11 Years later, Rambo has returned to the USA, and has become a drifter. He tries to visit Delmar, near the Town of Hope, Washington. He is informed that his friend has died, and he sadly leaves. On the Road, Rambo is accosted by the local Sheriff, Will Teasle who does not want any drifters, Rambo attempts to return to town, and is quickly arrested. Rambo is abused by the deputies, and has flashbacks to his torture as a POW in Vietnam. Rambo fights off the deputies and escapes. After inadvertently killing a deputy, a man hunt begins for Rambo. Rambo picks off the members of the search party, and evades detection. Rambo, returns to town and runs amok, destroying several buildings. When he is about to execute Teasle, he is stopped by his former CO, Colonel Sam Trautman. Rambo snaps out of his rampage, and is arrested.

Several years Rambo serving time in prison, he is released for the purposes of undertaking a recon mission to search for POW's at the same prison camp where he was held in Vietnam. Rambo makes contact with Co Bao, a local freedom fighter and his contact. Rambo, finds the POW's and attempts to extract one, but is betrayed and left behind. Rambo is taken prisoner once again, and is interrogated by Lieutenant Colonel Podovsky. Rambo escapes with the aid of Co. Rambo plans on abandoning the mission and returning to the US with Co, but she is gunned down in front of Rambo. Rambo is saddened and angered. After burying Co, Rambo goes on another rampage killing Russian and Vietnamese Soldiers, even destroying a local bridge. Rambo commandeers an enemy helicopter, and manages to extract all the POW's, he is attacked by another helicopter piloted by Padovsky. Rambo's helicopter goes down, and Rambo takes Padovsky's chopper down, before killing him with an M72 LAW.

Though it is revealed that Rambo's death had been faked, in order for him get "off their radar" so he can undertake a more personal mission, in order to save Trautman who has been captured by Russians, and is being held at a fort in Afghanistan. Rambo is seen in Thailand preparing to leave for Afghanistan.

Rambo meets with local Mujahideen fighters in Afghanistan. They are soon attacked by Russian commandos and gunship. After the chaos has ended, Rambo heads to the fort, intent on rescuing Trautman. Rambo manages to get inside, but is forced to flee when he is set upon by a massive enemy force. He makes an escape. Rambo attacks again the following morning, and sucessfully rescues Trauman from being tortured. They fight their way out and steal a helicopter, destroying the Fort. Rambo and Trautman make an emergency landing after their helicopter is damaged. The pair seek shelter from attack in cave, and fight of enemy troops. Believing themselves victorious, they emerge, but they are set upon by a larger enemy force, with tanks, and Turrets, and a gunship piloted by Colonel Zaysen, who was responsible for Trautman's capture, He orders them to surrender, Rambo and Trautman settle for a defiant last stand. While fighting off swarms of enemy soldiers, the Mujahideen arrive on horseback to assault the Russians. Rambo manages to steal a tank, and destroys, Zaysen's helicopter, crashing into it, after an ill advised game of chicken. The Mujahideen offer Rambo a place among them. Rambo declines and leaves with Trautman.

Differences from the Films[]

  • The events of the first two films are told via Flashbacks. The third Film is considered the present Day.
  • Rambo may kill more than one person during First Blood, player action determines this.
  • Rambo's romance with Co, is merely implied.
  • There are only 3 POW's.
  • Rambo's mission to rescue Trautman isn't government sanctioned. And his death is faked so he can do it.
  • Rambo infiltrates the fort alone, on both occasions.
  • The deleted scene from Rambo 3, where Rambo uses a Dragunov to shoot enemies is kept in.
  • Rambo does not fight Sergeant Kourov.

Baker Team Story[]

Rambo, Messner, Danforth, Ortega, Krackhauer, Colletta, Jorgenson and Barry went to Cambodia on a mission to destroy the Vietnamese Communist camp.

After they destroyed the camp, Rambo went alone to the depths of the cave to investigate. It was morning when they came out of the cave.

But the enemy is trying to surround them. Messner contacted headquarters, but failed. Baker team had to advance to LZ to stay away from the enemy.

The other three protected Danforth so that he could continue to contact headquarters, but it was still invalid.Messner finally decided that he and Danforth would attract the enemy, while Rambo and Barry put red smoke in LZ to call the helicopter.

Rambo and Barry held LZ until the helicopter arrived, but Danforth and Messner still didn't arrive. In a helpless situation, Rambo took over the position of the dead machine gunner, and Barry had to get on the helicopter.

Barry and the pilot quarreled over the life and death of Messner and Danforth. Barry insisted on waiting for them, while the pilot claimed that he could not stay here and that CAS would destroy the whole forest in a few minutes.Finally, Rambo jumped down as the helicopter was about to fly away and went back to the forest alone to save Messner and Danforth. After jumping down a waterfall, he found Messner and Danforth guarding in a dilapidated hut. He participated in and helped them resist the fierce attack of the enemy.

Then they had to leave before CAS arrived, despite Danforth's leg injury. At the last minute, Rambo and others finally left the bombing range of CAS at the last minute, and the flame of CAS swallowed up the whole forest.

Mission List[]

Chapter 1 (First Blood)[]

  • Prologue, Vietnam 1971 (Prequel)
  • Jailbreak, USA, Hope Town 1982
  • Forest Hunt: USA, Hope Forest 1982
  • The Demolition of Hope, USA, Hope Town 1982

Chapter 2 (Rambo: First Blood Part II)[]

  • POW Camp, Vietnam 1985
  • River Run, Vietnam 1985
  • Interrogation Escape, Vietnam 1985
  • Deep Jungle, Vietnam 1985
  • Village Vanguard, Vietnam 1985
  • The Waterfall, Vietnam 1985
  • POW Evac, Vietnam 1985

Chapter 3 (Rambo III)[]

  • Afghan Camp, Afghanistan 1988
  • The Fort, Afghanistan 1988
  • The Fort - Second Stab, Afghanistan 1988
  • Cave Encounter, Afghanistan 1988
  • The Final Showdown, Afghanistan 1988

Baker Team (Downloadable Content)[]

  • Jungle,Cambodia Part1, year not disclosed
  • Jungle,Cambodia Part2, year not disclosed
  • Jungle,Cambodia Part3, year not disclosed

Gameplay[]

The Game is made up of several components.

Shooting Galleries[]

Rambo Assault

On Rails Arcade style Shooting Galleries, complete with scoring where the player must dispatch waves of enemies. To reach the end of the stage. Game will move Rambo once enemies have been dealt with.

The Game includes vehicle and turret sections. The vehicles movement will be controlled by the game, and the player will only need to control the guns.

The Player is given 5 lives at the start of each stage, to attempt to complete it. Once all five are gone, the stage must be replayed from the Beginning.

Destruction[]

Rambo Destruction

The Player must destroy enemy vehicles or buildings, with explosive or heavy weapons. Inspired by scenes from the movie, such as the destruction of Hope Police Station, and Bridge Destruction

Quick Time Events[]

Quick Time Events are used for third person set pieces, and fight sequences in lieu of direct control. The QTEs are made redundant if the correct perk is equipped to allow no QTE fails, in which doing them will only offer score points instead of being necessary to proceed.

Rambo Hunt

Stealth-Hunt[]

The Player must use Rambo's Bow or Knife to sneak through areas, and silently eliminate foes. Knife sections allow the choice of lethal or non lethal force, though non lethal force is considerably harder as the QTEs must be performed perfectly.

Wrath[]

Rambo wrath

Successful kills or disarms will reward players by filling the Wrath meter. When activated, Wrath will slow enemies down, though Rambo shoots in slow motion, his aiming speed remains the same. Enemies and Explosives are highlighted with a yellow aura making them easier to spot.

Killing enemies whilst Wrath is activated will restore health. Since there are no health packs, or first aid packs in game, it is essential to use to stay alive in game.

Weapons[]

Many of the weapons were used in the films, and many of them were used by Rambo himself, Except where noted.

  • (~) Does Not Appear.
  • (*) Not used by Rambo
  • (#) Held by Rambo, but never fired.
  • (^) Used in Deleted Scene
  • (-) Downloadable Content

Pistols[]

Assault Rifles[]

Sub Machine Guns[]

Shotguns[]

Machine Guns[]

Sniper Rifle[]

Launcher[]

Bow[]

Arrow Types[]

Turrets[]

Grenades[]

Knives[]

Skills[]

Rambo skills

The game features a leveling system. As with other games, each level up awards one Skill point. Skill points can be allocated into one of five skill trees, each tree contains five skills for a total of twenty-five. Skill points must be chosen in succession.

Toughness[]

Increases Rambo's resistance to damage.

Light Weapons[]

Bonuses to Pistols, Sub Machine Guns, and Assault Rifles.

Heavy Weapons[]

Bonuses to Machine Guns.

Special Equipment[]

Increased capacity for grenades and arrows.

Wrath[]

Add another segment to Wrath.

Perks[]

Rambo perks

Perks can unlocked through game play. Up to three can be equipped at a time.

  • Row One:
    • No QTE Fails. Disarm Earns 5% Health. Reload Wheel Is 25% Slower. Reload Behind Cover Earns 20% More Ammo. Kills During Wrath Earn 25% More Life.
  • Row 2:
    • Headshots Earn 5% Health. 10% Faster XP Growth. 5% Faster Wrath Growth. Less Shaky Cam When Getting Damage. Rambo Moves 50% Faster In And Out Of Cover.
  • Row 3:
    • 15% More Ammo, Wrath Burns Out 10% Slower. Rambo Deals 25% More Damage. Every Second Reload is Always Perfect. Gain Wrath For Damage Received.
  • Row 4
    • Earn Wrath For A Perfect Reload. 50% More Ammo. Rambo And All Enemies Deal Twice The Damage. Reload Wheel Is 30% Slower. 15% Faster Wrath Growth.
  • Row 5
    • Score During Wrath Increased By 25%. Easier Chain Kills. QTE Score Increased By 50%. Earn More Points For Each Bullet You Put Into A Corpse. Headshots Result In 1 Second Slow Motion.

Development[]

Reef Entertainment acquired video game development and publishing rights in August 2011 to the Rambo film series from the rights holder StudioCanal. As of August 2011, the three Rambo series films had grossed over $600 million USD. The publisher said the purchase was fueled by the 2008 Rambo's success and by the scheduled release of the action film Expendables 2, starring Sylvester Stallone. They stated that they plan to use the rights as a launching pad for the company. In August 2011 the publisher said a Rambo game would be released at retail in 2012 and would be available on the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and PC. Jeffrey Matulef of Eurogamer said on October 5, 2012, that he did not believe the game would see release before the end of the year. That same month Reef Entertainment said it would be out "soon". Reef Entertainment's commercial director Craig Lewis describes the game as allowing players to "get under the skin of Rambo and wield his iconic weapon-set in battle." Reef Entertainment released three screenshots from the game. The developer used the actors from the film series to provide voices in the game for both John Rambo, played by Sylvester Stallone, and Col. Trautman, played by Richard Crenna. The developer did not actually hire the two actors to provide voice work (Crenna died in 2003) or get replacements but instead they have contacted the owner of the film series, STUDIOCANAL, and acquired copies of the original voice tapes for the series and used them for the game (The audio quality, however, was extremely poor).

Downloadable Content[]

A DLC expansion titled Rambo: Baker Team, was teased in 2015, The content of the DLC was several extra missions, serving as a prequel to the game, showing Rambo and his team's capture in Vietnam, with Trophies and Achievements being added to the consoles. However it was seemingly cancelled after no word of it was heard since.

However the DLC resurfaced along with a new trailer, on 18th of April 2016, over 2 years after the games initial release. It was released for free the following day.

Reception[]

Rambo: The Video Game received negative reviews. Aggregate review websites GameRankings and Metacritic gave the Xbox 360 version 46.67% and 32/100. and the PC version 34.00% and 34/100 the PlayStation 3 version 24.00% and 24/100. The game was on numerous worst game of the year lists on both official publications and independent reviewers.

Game critic Joe Vargas of the "Angry Joe Show" made a scathing review, giving the game a score of 2/10 and an epic fail badge (claiming it only escaped being scored lower by making him laugh at how bad it was) and criticizing almost everything about the game, from horrible graphics and character models, the lazy attempts at "Stealth" game play, useless perks, all weapons dealing the same amount of damage except the magazine size, the use of the audio from the movie, reusing the same music repeatedly in the same level, and how the game is too easy, except for the final level. His biggest criticism, fell to the how the game is overpriced ($40 at launch on PC and Console.) and too short (2 hours worth of overall content, but final level artificially extends length through unfair difficulty, which was 4 hours still) As well as this, he points out how the trailer doesn't represent the type of game it really is, as it was marketed as a First Person shooter and Stealth game, and never made any reference to being on rails. He placed it at number three on his list of worst games of 2014, behind only The Slaughtering Grounds and Duck Dynasty.

In addition, Joe's Rambo review is known for his satirical skits in which Joe wore himself a muscle suit, long black wig, red headband on his head, and making a twisted grimace just like Stallone's face and playing a Rambo spoof scene from UHF with his friend Other Joe for his intro. Another example is "Bob & Weave" skit where Rambo took cover and peeked constantly while firing as a way to jab at how frequent the gamer needs to take cover in order to prevent game over. However, his most iconic moment from his video is when he mimicked a line from a commander in the final mission, saying "HE'S A MAN, NOT A GOD! COME ON COMRADES, HE'S A MAN, NOT A GOD!" to point out how repetitive the voice line is. In fact, his quote became so popular that even his line was referenced in Teyon's Terminator game a few years later.

Joe later made a reaction video to the DLC trailer, satirically referencing his review as though he were suffering PTSD flashbacks. He seemed surprised that the DLC was even being made, especially so long after the game's initial release, as many believed it had been cancelled. He commended the developer for seeing the development through to the end, and for not charging for it.

Watchmojo.com included Rambo: The Video Game at number 2 on its updated list of "top 10 worst video games based on movies". In 2019, Watchmojo went on to list it at number 13 on its list of the "top 20 worst video games of the decade".

Although many view the game to be inferior to the source material, fans of the series and more casual gamers had a warmer action.

Trivia[]

  • Sylvester Stallone and Richard Crenna are the only actor's to reprise their roles as John Rambo and Sam Trautman respectively, (This was done through the use of the films audio tapes, as neither character has any new dialogue)
    • (They are also the only actor's whose likeness is used for their character)
      • Oddly, Sheriff Teasle's in game model bears more resemblance to the live action version of Art Galt
  • The man giving Rambo's Eulogy, is the game's version of Banks from the second Movie.
  • The game features the first physical appearance of Delmar Barry.
  • Many fans of the films have criticized the high body count in the First Blood sections of the game. However this is actually accurate to the original book which had a much higher body count, of both civillians and police officers.
  • The game features several similar mechanics in other games of the genre and even games from other genres.
    • The cover system is similar to the one used in Time Crisis.
      • Heavy Fire: Afghanistan and heavy Fire: Shattered Spear (other Teyon games) also use this system.
    • The Perfect Reload mini game is, similar to the Active Reload from Gears of War.
    • The Skill Tree is similar to that of a standard RPG.
    • The shrinking circle around the QTEs prompts, and cross-hairs when charging Bow shots is similar to how the 2013 game Tomb Raider presents those facets of gameplay. Even the perfectly timed QTEs serve a similar function, although, Perfect QTEs in Rambo may result in non Lethal attacks, and in Tomb Raider they result in Instant kills.
    • When performing Bow Head shots, a small cutscene will play, showing Rambo loose the arrow, then following the arrow until it makes it's target, similar to Sniper Elite's bullet cam.
    • Exclamation marks above the heads of suspicious enemies is a staple of the Metal Gear Series.
    • The Wrath system is derivative to several other games trademark mechanics
      • Overall the system works similar to the "Balls" meter/Rage Mode from Scarface: The World is yours. The meter fills by killing enemies, activating it turns the screen red, and each kill refills health, although you are susceptible to damage while in Wrath mode. Whereas rage grants invulnerability.
      • Highlighting of enemies and explosives is similar to Eagle Vision from Assassin's Creed.
      • The Slow Motion, is similar to the Bullet Time from Max Payne.
  • Commanders who can boost morale are similar to Rambo Sega arcade's mission in 2008. In chapter 2 of Sega Arcade, Rambo also needs to kill the morale-boosting enemy commander in order to demoralize the enemy.

Gallery[]

Videos[]

Official Website[]

VDE
Rambo
Films: First BloodRambo: First Blood Part IIRambo IIIRamboRambo: Last Blood
John Rambo on: First BloodFirst Blood Part IIRambo IIIRambo IVOn-Screen Kills
Cast: Sylvester StalloneRichard Crenna
Video games: RamboRambo: First Blood Part IIRambo (1987)Rambo IIIRambo on FireRambo (Sega)Rambo: The Video Game
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